BLACK COCKTAILS FOR BRANDENBURG

Lamine Thior - An African in Brandenburg

Author & Director:

Bernd Weissig

Commissioning Editor:

Hellmuth Henneberg

Duration:

30'

Production:

astfilm productions | for ORB

Black skin, black music, black cocktails. A black film? No, it is a film full of colors. A film mixed of the temperament, the entrepreneurship, and especially the irresistible "Satchmo" smile of a barkeeper in the city of Cottbus. Lamine Thior, born in Guinea in Africa, since September 2000 he mixes his "black cocktails" in the metropolis of the Lusatia. A small piece of world culture: a patio like on the Champs-Élysées in Paris is opened, a cook from Cuba brings the scent of exotic spices from the Caribbean to Cottbus. And what would a cocktail be without music? Rum, crushed ice and lemons, surrounded by funk and flamenco, tango and "Buena Vista Social Club". Billy Goodman, the son of the famous Benny Goodman played here, in Thior's "Calypso" bar. And so did Daniel Burley, Spanky Wilson, Johnna Tucker, ...

The cocktails of "everyday life". Lamine chooses the fruits at the market, in the afternoon he makes all the preparations for the long night behind the bar, and in between arrangements for the next concerts, an appointment at the print office, the program has to get finished, meetings with architects for the new patio, ... Around 8pm the first guests arrive, the last one will only leave in the early morning at 3am. Lamine switches off the lights. He closes the door and strolls through Cottbus into the morning. A smile. A look. A last Blues. "The place you are comfortable with, that is your home."

The film tells of a matter of course, that yet isn't such in 2001: a cocktail bar in Brandenburg and an African as the owner. For many it is something very exotic, for Lamine Thior it is nothing exceptional. Of course, he had heard about xenophobia and right-wing extremism in the east of Germany, even before he came to the Lusatia. But Lamine keeps is confident, his smile does not know any kind of prejudice. "Black Cocktails for Brandenburg", a film full of colors and music, tolerance and joy.